Georgia Southern coach Jeff Price probably knew his team's season was in trouble when guard Willie Powers suffered an ACL tear just 11 games into the year. Powers, the team's leading scorer, was putting up 14.5 points per game, dishing out almost four assists per contest and adding 3.1 rebounds an outing. He was also shooting about 47 percent from the field. The sophomore was in just about every way a model player for Price.

Elon will lose not only three of its top players for next season, but also its coach. After failing to ever be consistently competitive in 2008-2009, Phoenix brass official parted ways with coach Ernie Nestor after the Phoenix were beaten by Chattanooga in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament.

Liberty tied a school Division I record with 23 victories. It advanced to a postseason tournament for just the third time in school history. Those are nice facts, but the Flames' 2008-09 season was defined entirely by the play of freshman Seth Curry and his departure from the program a day after Liberty was eliminated from the CollegeInsider.com tournament by James Madison.